Ferrers, George

(?1500-1579)

   Born in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, he studied canon law at Cambridge and graduated B.A. in 1531. In 1534 he published an English translation of the Magna Carta and other important statutes. He was member of Parliament for Plymouth three times between 1542 and 1553. He served in some capacity in the court of Henry VIII and attended Henry VIII in his military expeditions against Scotland and France. Henry left him a small legacy in appreciation of his services. He is also served with Edward VI (1547-1553) against the Scots in 1548. He cooperated with William Baldwin (see entry) in inventing the series of historical poems Mirror for Magistrates (see also Richard Niccols), 1559. Ferrers contributed the opening poem, on the fall of Robert Tresilian (a judge who was executed for treason in 1388), a poem dealing with the murder of Thomas of Woodstock (Earl of Buckingham and Duke of Gloucester, murdered in Calais in 1397 on behalf of his nephew, King Richard II), and a poem on the death of Richard II (who died in 1400 in suspicious circumstances as a prisoner in Pontefract Castle, West Yorkshire).

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997.